Posted on March 25th, 2008 at 2:59 pm by isabelleemerald and
Slavery still exists. If you didn’t know or can’t believe it, then “Bottom of the Barrel” could tell you again. Times have not really changed: there was coverage of child slavery in an article written in 1996(contained within Life magazine), and according to a Newsweek editorial forced labor in Malaysia is still customary in 2008.
The immoral realism of slavery is being kept from the public eye. The only way we can learn about it is to dig deep. Journalists do this for us but reporting on such a controversial subject can be extremely dangerous, and not just for the writers. Both articles include actual stories told by people who have experienced slavery first-hand. They merely remain anonymous sources to readers ultimately avoiding retribution.
“At one compound that resembles a nest of grungy one-car garages, with no lights or ventilation, the soccer masters run shed to shed, yelling at the children to strip off the rubber finger-wraps designed to protect them from vicious thread cuts and to flee for cover. But one child doesn’t get out in time. As the masters glare and mutter, I ask him about his work.”
-Sydney H. Schanberg
The excerpt above is one of those stories contained within journalism aimed at exposing the truth, but at what cost? These writers put other people in jeopardy to present some awareness to the rest of us; unfortunately we don’t always want to listen.
Link Here | April 4, 2008,
I know people think about Nike sweatshops from time to time, but how often do we stop and think that real slavery is still actually alive? Kinda scary to read your blog and the good links you provided. And I agree with your closing paragraph, as I was reading the excerpt I was wondering what trouble Schanberg got that kid in to by delaying him even further, in front of “the masters.”
Lupe
Link Here | April 4, 2008,
Here we are, in the twenty-first century, thinking slavery was done away with generations ago, and yet here it is, in our cities, out of our sight- or so we’d like to believe. Often people don’t like to hear the brutal truth, but at some point we have to face up to reality. Some jobs are dangerous, but uncovering the truth in any circumstance is always an especially dangerous one. This is hard to hear, but we need to hear it- so we can start to change it. There are a lot of things in this world that are unjust, and this is one of them. Awareness is the first step to solving the problem; next we have to do something about it. Good post!
bethless